Greta Gerwig, director of the 2018 Golden Globes Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy winner, Lady Bird, regrets working with Woody Allen.
The 82-year-old's past was once again brought to life because of the ongoing conversation about sexual harassment in Hollywood. Allen was accused of sexual abuse by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow. To this day, the celebrated director denies the allegations and continues to make movies.
However, Hollywood is changing and its players are rejecting the systemic sexual abuse and gender-based oppression within the industry. Personalities who were once formidable have started to fall from grace.
Ignorance Is Bliss
Gerwig is one of the current torch-bearers of feminism in Hollywood thanks in part to her new movie, Lady Bird. The female-led story of a young woman (played by Saoirse Ronan) and her turbulent relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf) has emerged supreme at the 75th Golden Globes, bagging a Best Actress trophy for its lead star. It is also a front-runner at this year's Oscars.
That is why many finds it problematic that Gerwig worked with Allen in the past. The director/screenwriter/actress appeared in the 2012 movie To Rome With Love.
While several actors like David Krumholtz have publicly expressed regrets for working with Allen, Gerwig has been silent about the issue. She even dodged the question regarding her collaboration with the alleged sexual abuser at the Golden Globes.
How Greta Gerwig feels about previously working with Woody Allen pic.twitter.com/4tmrNMdHiL
— Variety (@Variety) January 8, 2018
In a conversation with Aaron Sorkin and Frank Bruni of The New York Times, she was ready to confront her past. She told her fellow director and the columnist that she would not have appeared in To Rome With Love if she knew then what she knows now.
"It is something that I take very seriously and have been thinking deeply about, and it has taken me time to gather my thoughts and say what I mean to say," she stated. "I grew up on his movies, and they have informed me as an artist, and I cannot change that fact now, but I can make different decisions moving forward."
She mentioned Farrow's open letters, one was published by the New York Times around the time the Golden Globes honored Allen with a lifetime achievement award, changed her mind about the director. She said that she will never work with the controversial director again.
Winds Of Change
Farrow hopes that the change sweeping the movie industry right now will reach her adoptive father. On Sunday, Jan. 7, she commented about the silent protest at the Golden Globes where actors and actresses all wore black to stand with victims of sexual assault.
"Advocating for 'every victim' in the abstract is great for illustration," she tweeted. "In practice, each victim is a real person with a story that may be inconvenient and require sacrifice to stand with them."
Many prominent figures in the entertainment industry spearheaded the movement called Time's Up. The initiative aims to provide a legal defense fund for victims of sexual abuse in the workplace.
For Hollywood to affect real change, Farrow insisted that no sexual predator, no matter how the public sees him or her as a genius, should be spared.
I will be watching tonight with a very different feeling than I had at this time four years ago. I will watch with optimism, with hope, and with the firm belief that there is a brighter future ahead. And I will watch to see if now, finally, time is up for my predator too. /6 end.
— Dylan Farrow (@realdylanfarrow) January 7, 2018
